Jorge Lorenzo stepped onto the podium for the second time this year at the Aragón Grand Prix with a third place finish in the fourteenth round of the season. Today’s race was held on a splendid sunny day in front of a massive crowd of over 70,000 spectators. The Ducati Team’s Spanish rider powered away well at the lights to take the lead into the first corner, and he remained in that position for the first fifteen laps. On lap 16 Jorge was passed by Marquez and by Pedrosa three laps from the end and as a result he crossed the finishing line in third place, two seconds down on the winner.
Seventh place at the flag went to Andrea Dovizioso, who started from the third row. The Italian fought with the leading group for half the race, holding on to fourth until lap 14, and he then found himself in a great battle with Rossi and Viñales but he wasn’t able to defend his position in the final stages and finished his race in seventh place.
Dovizioso now lies second in the overall standings with a 16-point gap from leader Marquez while Lorenzo moves back up to seventh place on 106 points.
The MotoGP world championship will be back on track for the next round at the Twin Ring Motegi circuit in Japan from 13-15 October.
Jorge Lorenzo (Ducati Team #99) – 3rd
“It was a very tough race but we were able to manage it well, and in the end we scored an important podium finish. This third place has a much better flavour than the one at Jerez because we finished very close to the winner and we fought right until the very end. It’s a pity I wasn’t able to keep the same pace in the last seven laps, but to be competitive in the race we had no other choice but use the soft rear tyre even though we knew that in the last few laps the performance was going to drop. In any case it’s important to see that we’re continuing to make progress and that I’m getting better every race and so I’m sure my first win will come soon.”
Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 7th
“It was a complicated weekend and my race was a tough one. At the start I tried to stay with the leading group, but unfortunately I didn’t have many cards to play: for sure not being able to do many laps on Friday complicated the situation because we knew this wasn’t an easy track for us and that we needed more time to work. I don’t think that opting for the soft rear tyre was a mistake, and the drop in performance towards the end of the race in my opinion is due to other factors, seeing as I was losing a lot in some parts of the track. Pity about my seventh place but, given the conditions, it was the best I could do today. There are still a lot of points at stake in the next four races and so we’ll try and make the best of the next opportunities.”
